Keeping up with Finnish or Buffer
Overflow

Keeping up with Finnish or Buffer
Overflow 12/19/2004 02:59 PM

« Sticker art girl with a long neck. »

I managed to survive the first week at work. There is always a period of feeling awkward and exposed when you first start working somewhere as you get to know the people you work with and find your way into the daily routine. The work is very familiar even though I'm a bit rusty in places and there are products in use that I've not worked with before. I have some large datacenter experience that might be helpful as well. The most challenging part of the job is, and will likely continue to be for a while, keeping up with conversations and meetings in Finnish. I understand quite a lot, but I have to concentrate on everything that is said. My vocabulary isn't all that great, but even if I only get half the words, context will usually help me figure out the rest. It's like working a cryptogram in real-time. My coworkers have been very nice in speaking Finnish to me even though I'm sure they find my replying in English somewhat annoying and, hopefully, I'll get over my self-consciousness about speaking Finnish sometime soon. Most of the people speak English very well which makes it too easy at times to be lazy. I keep hoping I have a Thirteenth Warrior experience and just start speaking it at some point and quip "I listened" when asked how I learned it. One person has such a perfect American accent that had he not said he was Finnish, I would have pegged him as being from somewhere in the Midwest. I hate that when people who aren't from the US have a better American accent than I do. :)

The atmosphere of the office reminds me so much of WU and BBN that I feel pretty much at home already. Everyone is some sort of academic who found their way into computing. I had to stand up and introduce myself at a meeting on my first day where I was told I had to describe my hobbies lest I be asked about them repeatedly. It seemed a little odd until I started to figure out that people really do value their hobbies and are interested in yours as well. I was really excited to meet a coworker who is involved with a student photography club and lab since I didn't want to build my own darkroom with an enlarger or buy one of the new photo printers since they generally suck at B&W printing. I'm also going to try and play sähly, Finnish floorball, with the company team once a week. I'd better look up the word for "incoming!" before hitting the arena. :)

Perhaps one of the most obvious differences between working in the US and here is the general approach to the amount of time you spend in the office. At BBN, 80 hours wasn't an unusual week and if you were on call, 100 or more. Here, people go home at a reasonable hour and I've yet to notice anyone sleeping under their desk. You're even expected to take your holiday time. What a novel concept! I had 5 or 6 weeks of holiday time per year when I left WU, but I never really had the chance to take it so that I had a giant check for 16 weeks of accrued holiday time along with my last paycheck. Holiday time works a little different here as you accrue time much like you do in the US, but you need 6 days of holiday time to take a week off from work. I am told this is a vestige from the 60s or thereabouts when the workweek was 6 days rather than 5. The employee manual also had some interesting holiday tidbits such as a day per annum for moving house and if your 50th or 60th birthday falls on a weekday you get the day off. I have a few years to go before that happens. :)

And, the breeders have supplied us with 2 more pictures of puppy cuteness. :)

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